Traditions
by SomethingOutOfNothing
Summary: "Sure you're not… Hang on, What? Did you jus? You did! You just agreed to kiss me!" It's Roses birthday, and the Doctor has a surprise for her.


**Disclaimer- I don't own Doctor Who.**

**A/N- Sooooooooo! This was written (using the TARDIS' prompts) (at 11 o'clock at night) for my excellent friend Carly's birthday! :D Happy birthday Carly, and hopefully this is a good enough present for ya! ;)**

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><p>It was Rose birthday, and the Doctor was rushing around the kitchen like he was a five year old on a sugar high when she walked in. "Doctor," she asked, sleep thickening her London accent. "What ya doin'?"<p>

The Doctor, who hadn't heard Rose come in, spun around and almost lost his balance. "Rose! What time is it?" he asked quickly, then continued, answering his own question. "Blimey, its only seven thirty! Wasn't expecting you to be awake for another five hours!"

"Oi, I'm allowed to sleep in on my birthday!" Rose said, with a smile.

The Doctor's eyebrows shot up and his mouth fell open, "is it your birthday?"

Roses smile faded and she answered quietly, "Yeah. But it's alrigh' I didn't tell you, I didn't expect you to know or anythin'."

The Doctor looked worried, but before he could say anything else, the oven's alarm went off. Rose gave the Doctor a confused look, for the first time noticing the state of the kitchen and the Doctor himself. The kitchen had sugar spilt on one of the benches, pots, bowls and pans were laying everywhere, and there seemed to be a char mark on the floor, which the Doctor looked like he was trying to cover up.

The Doctor had flour all over his face and his suit, an apron on and a chef's hat sitting precariously on his head. "Doctor, what have you _done_ to the kitchen?"

The Doctor waved a dismissive hand, "not to worry Rose, it was only a minor explosion."

"Explosion?" Rose repeated, staring at him in disbelief.

"Weeellll… Okay, yes. But only a small one," the Doctor tried, but realised that it wouldn't work, "besides it was for a good cause." He said with a smile.

"And was it worth almost blowing up our kitchen?"

The Doctor opened his mouth to protest the 'almost blowing up the kitchen' part, but instead just nodded his head profusely. "Rose Tyler, happy birthday," he said with a huge smile plastered on his face. Without another word, he turned to the oven and pulled out a huge chocolate cake with 'Happy Birthday Rose Tyler' written, obviously by the Doctor because the letters wobbled, on top.

"You think we're goin' to be able to eat all that?" Rose asked. The cake was positively huge.

"Well, we better, it took me three tries to get it right," the Doctor replied.

"Three? Why?"

"Because half way through the first one, I set the recipe on fire," the Doctor mumbled, but Rose still heard it.

"I'm not even goin' there!"

"Thankyou," The Doctor said, placing the cake on the table, then he turned to her. "You didn't really think I'd forget your birthday did you?"

"I don' know," Rose looked at her feet. "I jus' thought, you know, you've had a lot to think about lately…"

The Doctor took her hand, "Rose, I don't understand why, but birthdays are very important to you humans. Earth traditions, I don't think I'll ever understand them… But the point is, if it's important to you, it's important to me! So! You going to cut the cake?"

Rose frowned at the rapid change in subject, but within a second, the Doctor had put a knife in her hand, and as she cut the cake, Rose explained, "y'know Doctor, there's an old Earth tradition for birthdays," she paused and shovelled two pieces of cake onto plates.

"Yeah?" The Doctor asked with a mouth full of cake, but sounding interested none the less.

"Yeah, it says, if the knife comes out dirty, you have to kiss the bloke nearest to you," she continued.

"Yeah," The Doctor said again, still sounding interested as his eyes flicked to the knife, which looked to be almost as clean as it had been going in.

"Well, that knife looks pretty dirty to me," Rose said in an innocent tone.

"Rose, that knife's clean as a-" the Doctor cut himself off as his eyes widened to an almost comical size. "Ohhh…" he breathed out, then smiled, "Well, I've never been one to not follow traditions."

"Sure you're not… Hang on, What? Did you jus'? You did! You just agreed to kiss me!" Rose said sounding shocked, but the Doctor could see the smallest smile on her lips.

"Yes, I did Rose Tyler. So, are you up to it?"

"I've never been one to not follow traditions," she repeated with that smile that the Doctor swore would be the death of him.

"Well then Miss Tyler, we should follow tradition," a step closer, "even if it is," another step, "an old Earth one."

"Yes, we should," Rose said wrapping her arms around the Doctors neck. And that's exactly what they did.

The Doctor's last coherent thought being, _maybe Earth traditions aren't so bad after all._


End file.
